A bill which would make Orthodox Christmas a new annual non-working public holiday in Latvia, passed its first reading in the Saeima (Latvian parliament), by a small majority of votes.

A few years ago (09-Dec-2012), members of the then Latvian governing coalition introduced into the Saeima (Latvian parliament) yet another bill that would have added an additional, "à la carte", public holiday in Latvia so that each inhabitant of Latvia may choose to observe the religious holiday most important to him/her, a re-hash of the bill shelved the previous spring (07-Mar-2012) when Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced that due to a lack of consensus within Latvia's current ruling coalition parties, further debate on the declaration of a new annual non-working public holiday in Latvia had been "postponed indefinitely".

The second reading of the aforementioned bill, which would make Orthodox Christmas a new annual non-working public holiday in Latvia, is set to occur by October 5, 2018, or the last day before the upcoming elections, which would still give current MPs a month to pass it before the new MPs take their seats.